Manila, April 30 (IANS) Three suspected members of a leftist rebel group were killed in a clash with government troops in southern Philippines Wednesday , a military official said.

Captain Ernest Carolina of the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division said the gun battle happened in a forested area in Montevista town.

Carolina said no one from the government side was killed or injured.

The 4,000-strong New People’s Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting a leftist insurgency since 1969.